Carpenters group pickets Majority Builders

Carpenters fault wages paid; firm disputes charge

Carpenters fault wages paid; firm disputes charge

SOUTH BEND Â? If youÂ?ve been driving downtown on sunny Friday mornings, you might have noticed a bunch of men with fluorescent orange vests and picket signs along Colfax Avenue.

Or, you might have noticed their giant, blow-up rat.

The men are members of the Indiana/Kentucky Regional Council of Carpenters, led by Local 413 organizer Chris Springer.

Their signs protest Majority Builders, a South Bend-based construction company, for allegedly paying wages far below the unionÂ?s area standard. The union claims in the worst cases, the contractor pays as little as $8 per hour, $16 per hour less than union compensation. The company, which is renovating office space in the Commerce Center, vigorously refutes those claims.

Â?ThatÂ?s a lie and they know it,Â? said Rick Slagle, who along with his two brothers owns the 33-year-old business. Â?On a yearly basis my guys make more than their union counterparts.Â?

Slagle declined to disclose how much his company pays carpenters, but said it varies depending on skill level.

Â?In everything except the small amount of union trades that are left, people make money on different scales,Â? Slagle said.

Asked why he thinks the union is picketing his company, Slagle said, Â?They are mad because we will not join the union.Â?

Springer disagreed, but did admit the companyÂ?s apparent aversion to unions irks him.

Â?There are a lot of nonunion general (contractors) that use our sub(contractors),Â? he said. Â?Majority Builders doesnÂ?t even use our subs.Â?

In an attempt to win over public opinion, Springer and his pickets have been following Majority Builders around South Bend since Sept. 3.

Â?IÂ?m 30 years old and IÂ?m not going away,Â? said Springer. When asked how long he will protest Majority Builders, the union organizer said, Â?forever.Â?

The strife between the union and Majority Builders is symbolic of a battle that has been going on between union and nonunion contractors for a long time. The union protests because it says the wages paid by the nonunion contractor threaten the standard of living for all workers; the nonunion contractor pushes to keep costs down so it can outbid competitors. Low bids can make all the difference for contractorsÂ? customers, too.

Jim Coppens, executive director of the South Bend Civic Theatre where Majority Builders is in charge of a $4 million renovation, said cost was the primary reason the theater chose the contractorÂ?s bid.

Â?WeÂ?re a nonprofit and you know itÂ?s not like we have unlimited funds,Â? he said, adding that other bids were $500,000 to $1 million more than Majority BuildersÂ?. Â?The question becomes whether you really want to do the project or not.Â?

Business impact? Every week, Springer recruits volunteers from a list of about 200 union members to picket in groups of six to 12.

Soon the pickets that started in South Bend will spread to Majority BuildersÂ? job sites in LaPorte County.

The Local 413 downtown office bears witness to SpringerÂ?s tenacity. On the back wall of the small room on 315 N. Lafayette Blvd. is a three-column series of pictures from each protest against Majority Builders. His desk, adorned with pro-union magnets, holds fliers from past pickets as well as plans for future protests.

Springer said his protests have elicited a strong response from the community, but Slagle said the rat balloon hasnÂ?t hurt business.

In fact, Slagle said, the construction company has received calls from interested clients who said they had just driven by the Â?Shame, shame, shame on youÂ? sign held by union protesters.

The list of job sites the union has picketed in the past 10 months shows that Majority Builders is still winning construction bids in South Bend: Protesters have taken the rat to Stanley Clark School, AAA Federal Credit Union, Ziker Cleaners, Barnes & Thornburg attorneys, the South Bend Firefighters Federal Credit Union, the South Bend Civic Theatre and the Commerce Center.

Legally, Majority Builders is free to pay its carpenters any wage above the state minimum of $5.15 per hour, as long as they stick to privately funded projects. Should they ever take on a project involving federal dollars, the law mandates they pay the areaÂ?s Â?prevailing wage,Â? which for carpenters is $24.11 per hour.

Charles Craypo, a labor economics professor emeritus at the University of Notre Dame, said itÂ?s going to take more than picket signs for the union to get Majority Builders to comply with their requests Â? theyÂ?ll have to sway public opinion enough to affect Majority BuildersÂ? bottom line.

Â?If the contractor canÂ?t get or keep jobs, then itÂ?s going to influence their behavior,Â? he said.

As to whether the giant rat will help or hurt the unionÂ?s efforts: People who are sympathetic to unions will probably think itÂ?s humorous, Craypo said.